Gimmick Holes

[TOURNEYPLAYER]

I played at a tournament in the Southeast and as i was heading back to my room a "crazy" dg guy started asking me a bunch of questions. this guy can talk. anyways I told him where i was from etc.. i mentioned that I had played a course that was full of Gimmicky holes. like in the ground, way up high. almost like putt putt. when i used the word gimmicky he got kinda pissed and said thats not what it is. its character. just wondering what you guys think about courses with an excess of "character holes" how many is to many.

 

[atl scott]

how many is to many.

None, if you're playing tiki.

 

[TOURNEYPLAYER]

none is too many? or there is never too many.

 

[Cgkdisc]

If you're talking about Hippodrome, it has lots of character holes considering it was designed by the ultimate DG character himself, Pete May. Maybe that's who you were talking to?

 

[TOURNEYPLAYER]

I wasnt talking to Pete. but i did know that he designed it. i was only using it as a reference because i have never seen that many "character" holes on one course. it seems like mini golf.

 

[jtreadwell]

IMHO As long as the "character holes" don't degrade the amount of fun you're having they are fine. Everyone has to get their discs into those same baskets after all. If ALL the hole has to offer is a gimmick then you can call it a problem.

 

[Cgkdisc]

It's actually more the way disc golf courses should be for rec players (interesting, memorable) but are not for a variety of reasons, lack of terrain, cost and not being private are a few big ones. Disc golf should be fun and challenging. Strip away the unconventional look of holes like graveyard and noose, and each hole provides legitimate disc golf challenges. There's no windmill hole or random lucky elements beyond the rollaways that can happen on any course. The routes are there, the sight/flight lines to baskets are clear and the distances appropriate for each intended skill level.

 

[atl scott]

none is too many? or there is never too many.

My point is that tiki is awesome but a different breed of golf. Enjoyable for the sake of enjoyable.

Hippodrome is a lot of fun to play too in my mind.

 

[TOURNEYPLAYER]

i am not saying it doesnt have its place. but for me not something i would want to play all the time. Trophy Lakes has its hole in the ground...but the rest are pretty normal. Charlotte has a few elevated baskets or island type greens. but none to this extent. I wasnt trying to start a debate about a specific course just see what people think about these types of holes and how many is too many. Its about opinions.

 

[DavidSauls]

Don't know exactly how many are too many but.....to my taste, Hippodrome is well beyond the threshhold.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Then for discussion's sake, let's consider the definition of gimmick holes as those where the randomness of the result of certain throws is too high (lucky, fluky) versus being skillful. I think holes in the ground, on poles or hanging are all fair challenges and would not be classed as gimmicky. Players can learn how to play them and get consistent results. However, these funky basket mountings would be included in a discussion on acceptable hole architecture along with things like using yellow rope.

 

[atl scott]

Don't know exactly how many are too many but.....to my taste, Hippodrome is well beyond the threshhold.

I didn't feel this way at all when I played there casually the first few times. When I played it as an A-tier I leaned more to this train of thought.

Basically gimmicky isn't necessarily the way to go for top level disc golf competition, but it sure can be fun sometimes!

 

[CraigWesnofske]

I miss the 2006 World's layout at the Hippo. It got MAYjorly gimmicky after that.

 

[TOURNEYPLAYER]

Then for discussion's sake, let's consider the definition of gimmick holes as those where the randomness of the result of certain throws is too high (lucky, fluky) versus being skillful. I think holes in the ground, on poles or hanging are all fair challenges and would not be classed as gimmicky. Players can learn how to play them and get consistent results. However, these funky basket mountings would be included in a discussion on acceptable hole architecture along with things like using yellow rope.

what if in ball golf they started placing things around the holes. or placing them on top of a mound as wide as a disc. would you call that gimicky? i would because it takes away from the nature of the game. when im at home practicing on my basket i dont dig a hole in the ground and throw at it.

 

[CraigWesnofske]

I played a reindeer games ball golf tourney where you had to putt while sitting on a portable toilet.

 

[BrotherDave]

@ tourneyplayer
Ballgolf does do that though, with bunkers, water, and sloping greens. Unlike ball golf, we can't really do a sloping green, our "hole" has to be perfectly upright to catch properly. So to me, putting the basket on a pole or suspended is in the spirit of a sloping green in ball golf.

I know a lot of people don't like guarded baskets, think that's gimmicky. To me, a few guardian trees around a basket is about as disc golf as you can get.

 

[erock216]

what if in ball golf they started placing things around the holes. or placing them on top of a mound as wide as a disc. would you call that gimicky? i would because it takes away from the nature of the game. when im at home practicing on my basket i dont dig a hole in the ground and throw at it.

sounds like you need more practice baskets.

 

[TOURNEYPLAYER]

I played a reindeer games ball golf tourney where you had to putt while sitting on a portable toilet.

hmmm. but this is not a part of the course? is it?

 

[TOURNEYPLAYER]

@ tourneyplayer
Ballgolf does do that though, with bunkers, water, and sloping greens. Unlike ball golf, we can't really do a sloping green, our "hole" has to be perfectly upright to catch properly. So to me, putting the basket on a pole or suspended in the spirit of a sloping green in ball golf.

I think a sloping green would be putting the basket on a hill. where if you miss you roll. like a ball. and bunkers are not gimicky. they are not in the middile of a green.

 

[Hector Chain]

what if in ball golf they started placing things around the holes. or placing them on top of a mound as wide as a disc. would you call that gimicky? i would because it takes away from the nature of the game. when im at home practicing on my basket i dont dig a hole in the ground and throw at it.

My backyard does not have elevation, wooded areas, shule, or water, but those are all course features I love. The fact that I can't practice on them in my backyard doesn't make me dislike them.

I like encountering a basket that requires skill but isn't something I see often, like the elevated basket in the tree stump at Milo McIver, or the basket in the creek bed at Phantom Falls.